Category: IA-01

Democrats face large primary fields for the 1st, 3rd and 4th congressional districts in Iowa, making it a little tough at times to figure out how things could shake out. But after months of candidate announcements, the races are starting to come into focus. At this point it seems like everyone who is going to get in is in, and yesterday’s 3rd quarter campaign finance filings gave the first full picture of where the candidates stack up money-wise. Starting Line will be taking a look at each congressional district this week for the Democrats and Republicans running, analyzing the finance […]

State Representative Abby Finkenauer of Dubuque will be reporting a fundraising haul of $152,000 in the 3rd quarter reporting period next week, adding to her $156,000 total in the previous quarter. That brings her to over $300,000 raised in her 1st District campaign to take on two-term incumbent Rod Blum in one of the country’s top swing district races. She first faces a four-way Democratic primary in this Northeast Iowa district. Her campaign reports that the fundraising amount comes from over 1,300 individual contributions, and that their median contribution is $50, with a majority of the donations coming from Iowa. […]

State Representative Abby Finkenauer added another key group to her list of supporters in Democrats’ 1st District primary this week. The Great Plains Laborers have endorsed Finkenauer, making them the seventh labor union to support her in her bid to take on Republican Congressman Rod Blum. “Having grown up in a union home, Abby knows that building a fair and thriving economy means defending the rights of workers,” said Danny Hemminger, business manager and secretary-treasurer of LIUNA Local 43. “From day one in the state house, Abby has stood up to corporate special interests and fought for hard-working Iowa families. […]

To Cedar Rapid’s George Ramsey III, running for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District is an extension of the service to country he pursued in his recently-ended military career. Ramsey spent 31 years in military service before retiring in 2016, and for much of this summer he’s been traveling around Northeast Iowa in preparation for a congressional campaign, which he plans to kick off in early September. During those trips, he’s encountered a lot of Iowans frustrated not with a single issue, but with the entire political system. “I’m tired of all the rhetoric,” Ramsey recalled one man telling him during a […]

Constituents in Iowa’s 1st District couldn’t get an in-person meeting scheduled with their two-term Republican Congressman Rod Blum this summer despite repeated attempts for months. So they set up meetings with the next best thing: the four Democrats running to replace Blum in 2018. The candidates in the 1st District Democratic primary – Abby Finkenauer, Thomas Heckroth, George Ramsey and Courtney Rowe – have all set up “office hours” to sit down with Indivisible members to let voters’ concerns be heard. From now through the end of September, each will meet at the Blue Strawberry coffee shop in downtown Cedar […]

A guest post from Cindy Garlock, a 1st District resident, who has been trying to set up a meeting with Congressman Rod Blum. The November election left many of us in shock. In response to the Republican sweep of the federal and state government, a group of concerned Cedar Rapids citizens banded together to provide support to each other, but more importantly, to come up with ways to make our voices be heard in a chaotic political environment. A group of folks who were brought together through Indivisible began weekly meetings at a Cedar Rapids coffee shop in early February. […]

Thomas Heckroth has a constant reminder of his small-town roots at home: his goldendoodle puppy, “Waverly,” named after the Bremer County town he grew up in. Back in 2006 he knocked doors in that county and nearby ones for his father’s successful run for state senate. Now he’s back in Iowa, following ten years out of the state for school and working in Tom Harkin’s office and in the private sector in New York, to run for Congress in Iowa’s 1st District. “Serving the community and your country has been in my family for a long time,” Heckroth explained to […]